Black filmmakers get a hand to tell their stories

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Guillermo Arriaga, the writer of the Oscar-nominated film 21
Grams, is among a group of US screen workers in Australia for
Long Black, an Australian Film Commission program to help
indigenous filmmakers develop their first features.

"Indigenous stories are original stories [and] we have a hunger
for original stories," Arriaga said at yesterday's launching. "The
stories that the indigenous people of Australia are telling can
only happen here, and they can have also some universality."

Arriaga is excited about finding the young filmmakers' original
voice and trying to make it better - and about drawing inspiration
from a country he's long had a crush on: "When I was a kid, Alice
Springs was a mythical place for me. I said that I was 'Guillermo
the Australian'."

Each has been given $20,000 to develop his or her ideas. The
first stage of the program will be a week-long writers' lab in
Byron Bay, beginning this weekend, to be followed by a directors'
lab and a second writers' lab. The film commission's indigenous
unit branch manager, Sally Riley, had no problem attracting Arriaga
and Sklar to the program: "I just said, 'Do you want to come to
Australia?' and all of them wanted to come."

Rachel Perkins is grateful they have. Acclaimed for
Radiance and One Night the Moon, she's eager for
outside opinion on her new script, Bran Nu Dae, an adaption
of Jimmy Chi's play. "It's perfect timing," she said.

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1124562974936-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/film/black-filmmakers-get-a-hand-to-tell-their-stories/2005/08/25/1124562974936.htmlsmh.com.auSydney Morning Herald2005-08-26Black filmmakers get a hand to tell their storiesSamantha Selinger-MorrisEntertainmentFilm